Survey of LWR concepts in addition to EPR

International efforts made to harmonize the safety standards of future nuclear power plants are on a good course due to the fact that the reinforced defense in depth concept has been recognized worldwide. In this respect, a number of concepts for next generation plants are presently elaborated and nine variants of these concepts are briefly presented here. Concerning the PWR plant design, five new reactor designs have been chosen which may demonstrate the innovative trends in the United States and Russia. These are the American System 80+, APWR 1000 and AP-600 concepts and there Russian variants VVER-500 and VPBER-600. Concerning the BWR design, the advanced Swedish BWR 90, American ABWR and SBWR and the German SWR 1000 concepts are briefly described. For future plants, various advanced safety approaches have been developed and discussed which have in common the consideration of severe accident phenomena already at the design stage. A main objective is to achieve a significant reduction of the radiological source term to the environment due to all conceivable reactor accidents, including core melt down accidents. All concepts have in common to integrate the various preventive and mitigative measures into an innovative balanced overall concept for the safety of future plants such as the provision made against residual risks gains in transparence also for the public. (J.S.). 14 refs., 10 figs